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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI attended the Tournament of Roses Parade, then the Rose Bowl Game. ...
Living in San Diego, my favorite float was from the San Diego Zoo.
Sunset over the Rose Bowl
Happy New Year
Now, time to celebrate my birthday!
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Clouds Passing
(2,931 posts)
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
sinkingfeeling
(53,378 posts)aggiesal
(9,556 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 3, 2025, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)
that amazing place called Pasadena and the parade, basking in all that sunshine, from NW Indiana.
Living in San Diego, I've been driving to the parade since 2000, minus championship, Covid & Dallas Rose Bowl game.
Being an Irish fan, I was hoping to see Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl.
When they finally made it, the game was played in Dallas
Thank you for the birthday wishes n/t
SheltieLover
(60,545 posts)Ty for sharing with us.
Happy birthday! 
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
FSogol
(46,784 posts)How far in advance did you make room reservations or purchase a ticket.
Is it possible to view the volunteers gluing the flowers on floats early in the morning?
Recommend place to stay or place to view the parade?
Thanks and Happy B-day.
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 2, 2025, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)
Tickets for the parade start selling Feb 3rd.
You can get Parade Tickets Information from this site
https://sharpseating.com/
But checking the ticket agencies the last week before the parade (TicketMaster, StubHub, Seat Geek, Vivid Seats, ...), you'd probably get them cheaper. This year seats cost $125/seat face value.
The last week I was seeing tickets, on the after market, as cheap as $60.
The best bleacher seats are on Orange Grove Blvd. at the corner of W. Colorado Blvd. intersection (National TV feeds are here. Seating Section 124 when looking for tickets).
If you don't mind missing the skits, the bleachers on W. Colorado Blvd. at the corner of Orange Grove Blvd. are premium (Usually local TV feeds like KTLA are here).
In all cases the lower the row the better, you want to get as close to the floats as possible.
If you don't want to pay to watch, it's a 5 mile parade route, lined the whole way. You'll have to get there early. Some stakeout the night before and they bring sleeping bags and small grills to cook dinner & breakfast.
For free parade section, when walking to the parade, I take W. Holly St. to Arroyo Dr., then reaching S. Arroyo Blvd. go south. Reaching Arbor St. walk up the hill, and it is a severe hill, so be prepared to stop along the way, I swear it's worth it. When you reach Orange Grove Blvd. This is the start of the parade. You'll see all the TV RV's and the Rose Bowl House at this corner. Cross Orange Grove street and start walking North looking for a spot you'll enjoy the parade, the earlier you arrive the better.
I usually take a small calapsable chair, the smaller the better. Remember you have to carry this seat with you from the stadium.
Bring a jacket, it's cold in the morning, but by 10 am. it's warm enough that you won't need it until the sunsets, during the game.
When the parade ends, follow the parade, walk back to the stadium staying on Orange Grove Blvd. until you cross the 134, then turn left on Holly St. back to the stadium.
Also remember, this is an adventure, so enjoy every bit of it.
For Rose Bowl tickets, Rose Bowl uses TicketMaster. I've never been able to find out when exactly they are released.
Face value for this year as $250. I've noticed that every ticket to the Rose Bowl game are priced the same regardless of seat location. So 50 yard line or back of the end zone would cost $250 this year. I got lucky this year. My ticket cost $250 plus ticket fees of $47.50 (I hate ticket fees).
As you can see from the sunset picture, my ticket was on the 48 yard line on the Ohio St. sideline, and I bought it the day before. But I only needed 1 ticket.
For about 20 years I dealt with fans with extra tickets (never scalpers, they have crappy tickets but charge premium seat prices) I always got tickets for less than face value. The only time I paid more than face value was when I needed 3 tickets.
But if you need tickets in hand before you come to the Rose Bowl, start monitoring the Ticket agencies mentioned earlier, the minute the teams are decided.
Any championship game or game with USC, are going to be expensive, bank on it.
https://rosebowlgame.com/sports/2021/10/6/tickets-vip-packages.aspx
When attending, park near the stadium. The walk to the parade route is about 1 mile. But you won't regret it, trying to dodge the traffic, moving your car from the parade parking to game parking. Expect to pay about $50 for stadium parking.
As for hotels, I usually drive up the morning of the parade, so I get up at 3:30, to leave by 4:30, arriving at Pasadena around 7 am, then walk the 1 mile to the parade route by 8am. Usually get to my seat around 7:40-7:45 having to go through security then the maze of paths to get to your seats.
I'd say any hotel in north LA area, maybe along the 210 or 134 would be the closest hotels with clear access to the parade.
210 would be East & North of the stadium & parade route.
134 would be West of the stadium & parade route.
I always head east on 134 from route 2, and exit at the Linda Vista exit, turning right from the off ramp onto N. San Rafael Ave, then an immediate left onto W. Colorado Blvd. Once on W. Colorado Blvd., unless your on a bus, it will be blocked off, where your forced to take Linda Vista Ave. Stay on Linda Vista until you reach Seco St. (Basically just follow the Orange pile-ons into the stadium)
Hope this helps your enjoyment experience.
FSogol
(46,784 posts)
jmowreader
(51,659 posts)What do Rose Bowl tickets cost? I’ve always wanted to go to that game.
ITAL
(904 posts)Considering it was a quarterfinal game this year. I went to the Wisconsin/TCU Rose Bowl, pre-playoff era, and the tickets were fairly reasonable for a "big game" (more than I should have spent at the time, but I didn't break the bank either). Of course neither team had a chance for a National Title.
It was a great experience though, one I'll never forget. Turned into a helluva game too - TCU had to stop a 2 point conversion at the end to get the W.
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
William769
(55,955 posts) aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
cate94
(2,914 posts)And Happy Birthday!🎂
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)yagotme
(3,997 posts)Do you get strange looks while cheering for the Cubs? Buddy of mine, while I was stationed in SD, got tickets to a Padres/Cardinals game (1985 or so) at Jack Murphy. The tickets he got were in the Padres section. We got a lot of "looks", lol.
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
MustLoveBeagles
(12,728 posts) 
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
Initech
(102,653 posts)I've even been to a few of them. It's kind of a tradition in my house. I've never been to the Rose Bowl, though.
The floats this year were extremely impressive, I have to say! 
FemDemERA
(427 posts)Your pics of your day! Happy birthday!
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)mommymarine2003
(299 posts)I miss the way it was when a PAC-12 team went to the Rose Bowl every year. I love tradition and now that has been changed forever. The outside of the Rose Bowl is unimpressive'; but when you walk into the stadium, it is so huge and the crowd is incredible. Planes and blimps constantly fly around above. The Rose Parade was impressive, but I think I prefer to watch it on TV. Maybe because the day we went, it was in the upper 80's. We stayed in Huntington Beach across from the ocean. Our sons loved it as they wound up playing football on the beach with kids from a New Jersey high school who were going to be marching in the Rose Parade. The Michigan band and many Michigan fans were in our hotel, but everyone was polite and friendly. It was a unique experience.
LoisB
(9,032 posts)aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
Figarosmom
(3,576 posts)And HAPPY BIRTHDAY
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
MineralMan
(148,096 posts)As the drum major in my senior year, that was my job. It was a long, long parade, made even longer by how early we had to show up and prepare to march.
Sadly, there is no video of that parade, since it was long before the VCR and home video cameras appeared.
Abolishinist
(2,093 posts)We watched the parade on TV and liked all of the floats, but this was special as we also live in San Diego, and have visited Yun Chuan and Xin Bao twice. On one occasion we took the 60-minute guided tour in the morning, which was interesting.
I cannot imagine a better place to live!
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
bsiebs
(768 posts)aggiesal
(9,556 posts)PeaceWave
(1,197 posts)For those who are unaware, Fox Sports engineered the collapse of the largest college sports conference west of the Mississippi by financially enticing UCLA and USC to surreptitiously jump ship from the Pac 12 conference to the Midwest's largest college sports conference (the Big 10). Once this was accomplished, the rest of the Pac 12 quickly collapsed, taking with it 100 years of West Coast sports tradition. The move was so despicable that the University of California Board of Regents very nearly blocked UCLA's move to the Big 10. In the end, UCLA was tagged with a $30 million fine, payable to U.C. Berkeley, for damages done to that school's sports program. The damages will not come close to compensating Cal for their loss. Meanwhile, Berkeley and Stanford were both left with no better option than to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, an arrangement that will force student athletes at both universities to make numerous annual 5,000+ mile road trips to play ACC opponents on the East Coast. Money did this. Fox did this.
JT45242
(3,007 posts)They had discussion on how it all went down.
Years ago, when the Big Ten decided they wanted to cash in by having their own TV network, they teamed with a TV network so that they would not have to invest in all the TV infrastructure. They had instant negotiation power with satellite/cable companies and also did not have to buy TV trucks, camers, hire crews, etc. It would result in a little less profit but a lot fewer headaches as the risk was minimized. It also guided expansion into key TV markets even if they did not fit the Big Ten (top tier research institutes with at least one top program in the med school, law school, or engineering school...which is why Nebraska upgraded their research rating to get in and pissed off the conference when they did not maintain it). Rutgers was added to get NY markets, Maryland for the DC/Baltimore markets. That way the $x per household for every cable or satellite provider could be shared equally. Yes, FOX gets a cut but the revenue generated and shared helped all teh schools in the conference, especially with non-revenue sports. Pl
The SEC teamed with ESPN for the same reason.
The PAC12 commissioner thought -- we are the west coast we have connections with all sorts of people in TV and movie productions. We do not need ESPN or FOX stealing our money. We can create our own network and keep ALL THE $$$. He was wrong... without the existing infrastructure to get onto cable/satellite systems and the huge startup costs to physically have cameras and crews at literally dozens of sporting events every week, the PAC12 network was a money pit for the conference.
That is why teams left. His greed and mismanagement of the PAC 12 TV network,
Now, in hind sight if the NCAA had created an 8 team playoff to begin with -- 5 power conference champs (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 12, and SEC), highest ranking group of 5 conference champ, and two at large bids seeded 7 & 8 -- the PAc-12 commissioner may not have gotten so greedy and accepted a partnership with CBS, FOX, ESPN/ABC, or NBC.
The PAC-12 teams were tired of sending a check to the TV network when all the conferences were getting big checks from their networks even if FOX, ESPN, etc. were getting a cut.
It was greed, arrogance and ineptitude that killed the PAC12 not FOX.
onecaliberal
(36,447 posts)OC_Lars
(40 posts)My daughter was in the 605 All Star Band
What an amazing event
onecaliberal
(36,447 posts)aggiesal
(9,556 posts)
electric_blue68
(18,973 posts)Haven't watched The Tournament of Roses in a long time. So pretty!
And especially so for those of us in drabbed out flower-less, way less green Northern States in Winter time!
OC_Lars
(40 posts)The tiger was stunning. I thought the little UFO float was cute too
colorado_ufo
(5,942 posts)Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!
aggiesal
(9,556 posts) 
Blue_Tires
(57,066 posts)Jackson State University Marching Band! 😎
aggiesal
(9,556 posts)High energy, loud and they played some Luther Vandross - Never Too Much, in front of our viewing stands.
We could hear them 2 blocks away.
Here is an hours worth of Jackson St. at the Tournament of Roses Parade video, from 2025 New Years Day.
The title says 2024, but believe me it is 2025
This video starts right at the start of the parade.
At the 7:35, is when they started playing Luther. At 8:40 they were right in front of me.
I was sitting in the bleacher stands to the left. The Drum Majors were just to the left of me when they started,
so the sound just got better as they approached.
It seemed like I was to only one that recognized the song, because I was the only one singing.
They played The Temptations "Get Ready" in front of the National Feed Cameras (ABC, FOX) on Orange Grove.
When they turned the corner on to W. Colorado Blvd. they played Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" in front of the NBC National feed cameras and local KTLA cameras.
Maybe you can find your nephew. ENJOY the 3 videos.
Here is the full parade from the FOX feed.
Jackson St. appears at 26:17 until 31:17 in front of the Orange Grove Blvd. National feed cameras.
https://www.youtube.com/live/-oRZNvBpxa0?feature=shared
Here is KTLA's feed. (They usually broadcast commercial free)
https://www.youtube.com/live/MliWVSG3hL4?feature=shared